贾宝玉荣国府二房的宝二爷 · 1
Leaf 1 of the Red Chamber · 怡红公子 Contemplation of Red
Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the household (当家) · nicknamed 怡红公子 “Contemplation of Red”
Born with a jade in his mouth and judged his family's ruin at his first birthday: he worships the girls of the house, saves none of them, and gives the jade back.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 2
The First Birthday Grab
抓周試瞳Laid out at his first birthday with brushes, ledgers and trinkets, he takes only the paint-boxes and the powder, and weeps until someone hands him a mirror. His father calls him a ruin.
- ch. 3
The Jade Thrown at the Floor
擲玉He meets the cousin no one had mentioned, says he has seen her before, then hurls his jade at the floor when he learns she has none: how should she lack it and he keep it.
- ch. 5
The Registers of Jinling
神遊太虛Asleep in his sister-in-law's room he is carried to the Land of Illusion, opens the cabinets holding the registers of Jinling, hears the songs of the house's fall — and understands nothing.
- ch. 33
Bearing the Cane from His Father
承笞His father beats him near to death over a drowned maid and a boy he should not have befriended; bleeding, he tells the cousin he would die for them all, and it would be worth it.
- ch. 34
Two Old Handkerchiefs Sent
舊帕He sends the girl two old handkerchiefs from his own use, with nothing written on them. She understands at once, and writes three verses on the cloth that night.
- ch. 57
A Joke That Tries the Jade
試玉The maid Zijuan jokes that her mistress is being married away; he turns grey, loses speech and wit, and lies stunned for days while the jade on his neck goes dark.
- ch. 78
An Elegy to the Hibiscus
芙蓉誄He writes an extravagant elegy to a servant girl he could not defend, addressed to the hibiscus she became, then edits its lines with the cousin he loves.
- ch. 96
The Bride Swapped in the Sedan
調包His family cures his illness by telling him he is marrying his cousin and putting another bride in the sedan. That same night the cousin burns his poems and dies.
- ch. 119
The Four Bows in the Snow
却塵緣He sits the provincial examination, passes, and vanishes on the way out of the hall — last seen in a red cape, bowing four times to his father in the snow.
結局 The ending
He hands back everything the house bargained for: the degree that redeems its name, then the jade, the body and the name with it. Chapter 120's edict gives him a Daoist title and the stone goes back to its mountain; his father glimpses a red cape in the snow, and when he turns there is no one.
The book itself: what happens, how long it is, which English version to read — The story · How long it is · Which translation · The lamp-oil night · The family tree · The first expulsion